Russell Martin

[Disco Stu]

2 hours ago, S-Clarke said:

Done and dusted methinks. Must be close to a sticky?

It's not that exciting is it!? 🫢

Edited 21 May, 2023 by Disco Stu

[S-Clarke]

2 minutes ago, Disco Stu said:

I'm not that excited about it 🫢

Got to get behind it really! It's time for this club to reconnect with the fans again, and hopefully he's the sort of personality which will begin that.

Dubious, of course and understandably, but it's counterproductive if we are all against it from day 1. Deserves our support 100% no matter what our feelings are on it, I'm hopeful that his Championship knowledge will help us build a team capable of competing at this level, as at the moment this current lot would struggle to stay up. There is an enormous amount of work to do, so the sooner it starts the better.

Edited 21 May, 2023 by S-Clarke

[beatlesaint]

1 minute ago, S-Clarke said:

Got to get behind it really! It's time for this club to reconnect with the fans again, and hopefully he's the sort of personality which will begin that.

Dubious, of course and understandably, but it's counterproductive if we are all against it from day 1. Deserves our support 100% no matter what our feelings are on it, I'm hopeful that his Championship knowledge will help us build a team capable of competing at this level, as at the moment this current lot would struggle to stay up. There is an enormous amount of work to do, so the sooner it starts the better.

Trouble is with two crap appointments the confidence in this one isn’t high. That’s not fair on Martin but that’s how it is I’m afraid.

He will need to get off to a great start to win people around.

[aintforever]

This is exactly the sort of appointment I feared. Imagine our pussy players trying to pat it around like Man City when we go to Luton away next year.

I can't believe Dragon man is trusting these clowns with his money.

 

Edited 21 May, 2023 by aintforever

[S-Clarke]

Just now, beatlesaint said:

Trouble is with two crap appointments the confidence in this one isn’t high. That’s not fair on Martin but that’s how it is I’m afraid.

He will need to get off to a great start to win people around.

Exactly, that's the problem - we've all been burnt and because of that I think we were all hoping for a 'statement' appointment to galvanise everyone, not that it was realistic I guess. He does need to get off to a good start from day 1, but starting with us as early as possible gives him that chance I guess.

Nothing more we can do than hope.

[Harry_SFC]

I'm glad we are moving towards a more possession based style. Had enough of all the focus being on our ability off the ball. 

[CSA96]

9 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

I'm glad we are moving towards a more possession based style. Had enough of all the focus being on our ability off the ball. 

This. If I hear a managing waffling on like Selles about 'playstoppers' and players who 'play against the space' really well, it will be too soon.

[Wsaint]

29 minutes ago, S-Clarke said:

Can you think of another time where a media link has been made up as a smokescreen for someone else? Because i can't.

I see this all the time with players or links to managers etc, it's just media chat, smokescreen to keep the real news quiet etc etc. It's nonsense.

Martin is our new manager.

Everyone loves a good smokescreen theory. 

[Yorkshire Saint]

46 minutes ago, aintforever said:

This is exactly the sort of appointment I feared. Imagine our pussy players trying to pat it around like Man City when we go to Luton away next year.

I can't believe Dragon man is trusting these clowns with his money.

 

Coventry more like. Luton will be PL

[Fabrice29]

Sad to see Brighton resort to boring possession football today. Hope that's not what Martin will bring to us.

[aintforever]

1 minute ago, Fabrice29 said:

Sad to see Brighton resort to boring possession football today. Hope that's not what Martin will bring to us.

Except Brighton get results.

[Harry_SFC]

4 minutes ago, aintforever said:

Except Brighton get results.

Well considering Martin hasn't managed us yet, how do you know he won't get results? I'll answer that for you - you don't.

[Badger]

56 minutes ago, beatlesaint said:

Trouble is with two crap appointments the confidence in this one isn’t high. That’s not fair on Martin but that’s how it is I’m afraid.

He will need to get off to a great start to win people around.

Average or bad start and the whole place will be under a cloud of despair and we’ll be back in the give him till end of October type of nonsense.

Well done Rasmus, it was so avoidable. 

[CityRanger]

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

[aintforever]

4 minutes ago, Harry_SFC said:

Well considering Martin hasn't managed us yet, how do you know he won't get results? I'll answer that for you - you don't.

True, but he has never finished above mid-table once, not sure why you think that will change with our bunch of losers.

[CSA96]

2 minutes ago, aintforever said:

True, but he has never finished above mid-table once, not sure why you think that will change with our bunch of losers.

I'm banking on as few of the losers as possible being around next season. If they are, then SR will have failed another manager.

[Badger]

1 minute ago, aintforever said:

True, but he has never finished above mid-table once, not sure why you think that will change with our bunch of losers.

Don’t be so negative.

We’ll see most of the current squad piss off. We’ve got money to spend and invest, the envy of the rest of the Division.

Watch us assemble and train a new bunch of losers.

[CSA96]

3 minutes ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

They want to win. And play nice football. But only with a big name who they can brag down the pub to their mates about.

Quite frankly, I couldn't give a fuck about what the manager's name is. I'd like him to be able to do three things:

1. Win games (preferably in an entertaining, pleasing way and not NJ's hit and hope - but the priority is to win)
2. Get rid of the wasters and losers, improve the culture
3. Develop the players through coaching

[Harry_SFC]

6 minutes ago, aintforever said:

True, but he has never finished above mid-table once, not sure why you think that will change with our bunch of losers.

I'm hoping we will get rid of a large number of the current losers and it'll be a bit of a fresh start. We'll just have to wait and see I guess.

[OttawaSaint]

Can we have some of that football where we get more goals than the oppo. That.

[trousers]

Can someone tell me how Martin's style of football fundamentally differs from that of Selles's? (Genuine question as I've not really been paying attention nor looked into it). Cheers 

Edited 21 May, 2023 by trousers

[aintforever]

13 minutes ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

I don't think the fans would mind any particular style as long as it gets results.

[CSA96]

4 minutes ago, trousers said:

Can someone tell me how Martin's style of football differs from that of Selles's? (Genuine question as I've not really been paying attention nor looked into it). Cheers 

Selles is from the school of letting the opposition have more of the ball and setting 'traps' and making sure to press at the right moments and play off the turnovers.

Martin wants to get the ball, keep the ball and starve the opponent of the ball. At times, that can be possession for possession's sake, but he's of the theory that it's best to keep the opponents less dangerous by simply not letting them have the ball.

Edited 21 May, 2023 by CSA96

[Badger]

3 hours ago, woodsaint1 said:

It seems as though we approached Enzo Maresca (City shock horror) and he turned us down 

I said on another thread - in jest - that we’d try and recruit a back room or junior from City. Remain of the view we should ditch this fixation with trying to be City Lite.

But also find it remarkable that we actually considered someone with less  of a track record(or experience if I can use that word) than Martin.

Not only do we go for a second Championship manager with little or limited previous success , we also consider  promoting a second coach to the top job. 

 

[aintforever]

6 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

At times, that can be possession for possession's sake, but he's of the theory that it's best to keep the opponents less dangerous by simply not letting them have the ball.

Like in the 20-21 season when his MK Dons side were only bettered in the possession stats by Man City and Barcelona, yet they finished below Accrington Stanley and Crewe.

Edited 21 May, 2023 by aintforever

[CB Fry]

26 minutes ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

The objection to Jones was the whole being shit and losing all the games and also him being mental thing.

I'm sure this felt like a jolly clever little dig at the fans when you wrote it.

What we are looking for is success, for winning a few matches.

It's the club, not the fans, prioritising metrics and systems and spreadsheets, as they did with the recruitment of Jones and then Selles.

Edited 21 May, 2023 by CB Fry

[CSA96]

1 minute ago, aintforever said:

Like in the 20-21 season when MK Dons were only bettered in the possession stats by Man City and Barcelona, yet they finished below Accrington Stanley and Crewe.

I'm just answering the guy's question. I've no idea what the relative budgets and talent levels were of the squads in a League One season three years ago so I can't really comment beyond that.

[bangkoksaint]

42 minutes ago, CSA96 said:

I'm just answering the guy's question. I've no idea what the relative budgets and talent levels were of the squads in a League One season three years ago so I can't really comment beyond that.

I watch Crewe regularly as it’s on my doorstep. They have spent next to no money for years so if that stat is correct from only a couple of years ago then it’s a poor indictment of where MKD were that season. 

[saintwbu]

1 hour ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

They want high pressin… oh wait no they didn’t like that either

[Holmes_and_Watson]

1 hour ago, aintforever said:

I don't think the fans would mind any particular style as long as it gets results.

for a while, and then we'd be as fickle as everyone else. 🙂

[Convict Colony]

1 hour ago, CSA96 said:

Selles is from the school of letting the opposition have more of the ball and setting 'traps' and making sure to press at the right moments and play off the turnovers.

Martin wants to get the ball, keep the ball and starve the opponent of the ball. At times, that can be possession for possession's sake, but he's of the theory that it's best to keep the opponents less dangerous by simply not letting them have the ball.

Thanks a genuinely useful post today

[pimpin4rizeal]

On 19/05/2023 at 21:42, Turkish said:

Whatever you think of Selles and I don’t rate him at all, Appointing a new manager whilst we already have one doesn’t seem a great way to treat staff however shit the are 

Do you mean appointing a real manager ?

selles deserves all he gets with his retarded team selections … when people thought jones was bad selles was like hold my beer 

[Convict Colony]

1 hour ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

Everyone loves goal scoring football

[LGTL]

7 minutes ago, saintwbu said:

They want high pressin… oh wait no they didn’t like that either

They just want to fucking win. We don’t really remember what that feels like. Jones didn’t, Selles hasn’t and Martin hasn’t exactly been a win freak at MK Dons or Swansea FFS. 

[Lee On Solent Saint]

Just now, pimpin4rizeal said:

Do you mean appointing a real manager ?

selles deserves all he gets with his retarded team selections … when people thought jones was bad selles was like hold my beer 

I still remain convinced that a half decent manager at Premier League level would have kept us up. 

[harvey]

1 hour ago, CSA96 said:

Selles is from the school of letting the opposition have more of the ball and setting 'traps' and making sure to press at the right moments and play off the turnovers.

Martin wants to get the ball, keep the ball and starve the opponent of the ball. At times, that can be possession for possession's sake, but he's of the theory that it's best to keep the opponents less dangerous by simply not letting them have the ball.

That's all very well if you have the players to exploit that....we don't.

[Pilchards]

I remember Hoddle used to win many games 1 - 0 and the performances were not that great.

However we kept winning and the dell used to be rocking. I personally don’t care about the football either as I just want this team to win games for a change. It’s been 2 years  of non stop loses and it’s drained the players plus the fans.

[saintwbu]

24 minutes ago, LGTL said:

They just want to fucking win. We don’t really remember what that feels like. Jones didn’t, Selles hasn’t and Martin hasn’t exactly been a win freak at MK Dons or Swansea FFS. 

Then people should stop moaning about us appointing a manager because he plays ‘tippy tappy possession rubbish’ or whatever they want to describe it as, because you’re right, ultimately people just want to watch a competitive team that wins games. Let’s wait and see if the manager does that, before writing him off because of his style of football. 

[Holmes_and_Watson]

34 minutes ago, Convict Colony said:

Thanks a genuinely useful post today

Hey!

Last time I entertian you in the match thread! And there's certainly no entertainment watching it, so you'll have nothing. 🙂

[Miltonaggro]

As I said previously a real sense of Jones deja vu in terms of Martin incoming both in terms of a flurry on here and the media (Blackmore seems to have been tipped off in advance to disseminate).  This all points to a high probably that Martin was on the Rasmus Ankersen short shortlist that propelled Nathan Jones to Premier League stardom and infamy in three months.  Frankly, if it's Martin I genuinely cannot see a Wilcox input, so remarkably this is another Ankersen roll of the dice.  Desperately trying to be positive perhaps the nearest positive marker we have from recent history was the appointment of Nigel Adkins, but in many ways this was in reverse in terms of our current direction of travel, which makes things more difficult perhaps.  As with Nathan Jones you can't play the man, so all we can do is give Russell Martin a chance in the hope that he can galvanise what should be an expensively assembled team and rejuvenated fanbase towards promotion, just like Nigel.  If he fails, it will be on Sport Republic, if he succeeds this 'progressive' Board will simply have taken us back to 2012.   

[Fitzhugh Fella]

2 hours ago, Harry_SFC said:

Well considering Martin hasn't managed us yet, how do you know he won't get results? I'll answer that for you - you don't.

And you don’t know he will so that’s us all back to square one. 

[Dusic]

I have seen a lot of comments on here that appointing Martin is "risky" and "making the same mistake again" post Jones.

Out of interest:

1. Who are the realistic managers that people wouldn't see as "risky" and think would "unite the fans"?

2. Why is Martin seen as in any way similar to Jones?

Style of play couldn't be more different (and is closely aligned to Wilcox which is surely a big positive, clearly he would have had a significant role in the appointment) whilst he also has recent experience of both playing and managing in the Championship so is a known quantity at that level whereas PL was obviously a step up for Jones. Seems a very lazy comparison.

Edited 21 May, 2023 by Dusic

[Saint Garrett]

I’m quite excited by this appointment tbh, seems like a great fit for us. Club needs rebuilding from the top down. We have Wilcox in place, a new manager in ready to hit the ground running over the summer. Time to go out and bring in players that fit the system and style.

Also, haven’t we had a depressing enough season or 2, to start whinging about a manager who has lost 0 games as saints manager yet…! Give him a chance! 

Edited 21 May, 2023 by Saint Garrett

[SotonianWill]

As long as they call him gaffer/boss/ anything that resembles a hierarchy will be good. all our players call rueben selles by his first name, shows a lack of authority and respect or am I going too much into that?

[ErwinK1961]

20 minutes ago, Saint Garrett said:

I’m quite excited by this appointment tbh, seems like a great fit for us. Club needs rebuilding from the top down. We have Wilcox in place, a new manager in ready to hit the ground running over the summer. Time to go out and bring in players that fit the system and style, 

This is the key, bringing in the players to suit his system and philosophy. Hopefully they’ve learned their lessons from the last two windows.

[Dark Munster]

1 hour ago, Lee On Solent Saint said:

I still remain convinced that a half decent manager at Premier League level would have kept us up. 

Throw in bringing in a decent goal scorer last summer and I'd agree.

[Viking Saint]

3 hours ago, CityRanger said:

This Forum hates direct football, was very clear from outset of Jones reign.

The majority on this thread seem dead against possession football.

What style of play will the critics on here deem acceptable?

 

Anything that gets us actually winning games with a modicum of fucking entertainment 

[HarvSFC]

26 minutes ago, SotonianWill said:

As long as they call him gaffer/boss/ anything that resembles a hierarchy will be good. all our players call rueben selles by his first name, shows a lack of authority and respect or am I going too much into that?

The Athletic said in an article last week that the players were pretty much getting away with too much, not just under Selles, but for the entire season. Remember they were rewarded with a two week holiday instead of training during the six week World Cup break, while every other club barring Bournemouth was playing friendlies. Martin didn't accept Obafemi's attitude in the same way Hasenhuttl didn't and called it out in public, so it will at least be nice to have someone actually in charge of the players at the club again.

In his playing career, Martin became Peterborough's youngest ever captain and Norwich's captain for five years. So, you'd expect he has some of that much needed and desired leadership quality.

[The Cat]

1 hour ago, Saint Garrett said:

I’m quite excited by this appointment tbh, seems like a great fit for us. Club needs rebuilding from the top down. We have Wilcox in place, a new manager in ready to hit the ground running over the summer. Time to go out and bring in players that fit the system and style, 

Plus the new recruitment guy from Aberdeen. 

Like you I'm in favour of the appointment and am looking forward to seeing the new staff working together to mould a new team who play in a different way.

[saint1977]

15 minutes ago, The Cat said:

Plus the new recruitment guy from Aberdeen. 

Like you I'm in favour of the appointment and am looking forward to seeing the new staff working together to mould a new team who play in a different way.

I’m coming around to it, and do remember how he dealt with Obafemi seemingly taking the unprofessional SFC behaviour from the post-2017 period to Swansea and rooting it out. Hoping that the two out of contract defenders, especially Manning, might re-join him and Piroe also very welcome. It’s a good point others make about leadership, I felt Ralph had to do too much on his own and if Martin can bring some staff in who care and set the standards/enforce them, then great.